The Human Chronicles
by Amethyst2
Summary: I wrote this when I was only like eleven or twelve, so I know that most of it sucks. However, I'm hoping sometime to go back and fix some of the major plotholes. REVIEW please! This story is about a new Animorph. All the chapters are pretty short.
1. Prolouge

The Human Chronicles  
  
  
  
  
  
Those days before it came.  
  
  
My name is Jacqueline. Most people think that earth is safe. Most people think that the worst thing that can happen to them is to die. I used to believe that with all my heart. Guess What?   
I was wrong.  
My vision of safety was shattered when I was nine years old. I had a normal family, a dad, a mom, two older sisters. I lived in a normal house on a normal street. My biggest fear was the monsters on TV. Normal. Easy. I complained about life to my diary when I was forced to do chores, or when I had a fight with my friends. I had no idea how hard life would be so soon.   
One thing was abnormal about me. I never cried. Not once in my life had I shed a tear. I never became overly excited or worried about anything, good or bad. Not even what happened that day…  
My whole family was sitting in the living room, watching TV, when my dad turned to me.   
"Jackie, your Mom and I have decided that, now that you and your sisters are old enough, we have something very important to talk to you about."  
"Dad.." complained Deirdre, " I've already had the talk."   
"Not that talk," Mom cut in quickly, " Something more important than that."  
I will remember the next five minutes for as long as I live. I was a red-headed nine year old, my sisters, Deirdre a 13 year old blond beauty, and Ashley a 14 year old blond skeptic. My mother, with her curly brown hair and big brown eyes, and my father, with his black hair and strong hands.   
Those five minutes started when my dad said:  
"Girls, the enemy has come. The Yeerks are here."  
  
  



	2. Chapter 1

  
Destruction and despair  
  
  
"The Yeerks are here."  
" The what?" asked Ashley?  
"The Yeerks," explained Mom." The Yeerks are aliens. They have invaded earth."  
"Whoa, whoa whoa. Aliens? Mom, are you feeling OK?"  
"Listen to me," my father said urgently. "The Yeerks are aliens. They are small slugs, almost like earth slugs. Some miracle of science has caused them to evolve to be able to control people. They crawl into your brain through the ear canal, and hook into your brain, causing you to be under their control. They control your movements, your voice. They look into your memories, and hear your thoughts as you think them."  
"Dad? This is a joke, right?"  
"Mom, you don't believe this, do you?"  
My sisters looked puzzled. But in this one situation, my youth was a blessing. I asked only,   
"Dad, Mom, how do you know all this? How can you know about this?"  
Mom smiled at Dad.   
"You, Jacqueline, will be a warrior. Ready to fight, no matter what. Blessings on you."  
Dad gave Mom a look I couldn't read.   
"You were always one for tradition, weren't you, dear." To my Mother, of course. Then to me, "Jackie, my true daughter, the Yeerks aren't the only aliens in the galaxy. There are many thousands of races, but the three others you need to know about are Hork-Bajir, Taxxons and Andalites. The Hork-Bajir are slaves of the Yeerks. They look like dragons without wings, with blades covering their bodies. Taxxons are evil, cannibalistic ten-foot centipedes. But the Andalites fight the Yeerks. The Andalites are the white knights of the galaxy. They look like blue centaurs, with extra eyes on stalks on their foreheads, and scorpion-like tails. They have the power to turn into other creatures. Anything with DNA they can turn into. That power is useful for fighting, but most fighting is done with laser weapons called Dracon Beams and Shredders."  
Ashley looked at me, then turned to Dad. "How in the heck do you know all this, Dad?"  
"We are Andalites. We were, anyway. We turned into humans, and stayed on earth. You see, there is a 2 hour time limit to the morphing power. If you stay more than two hours, you stay in that form forever."  
"Your father and I used to fight the Yeerks with a small band of other Andalites stranded here on earth, but when we realized that we wanted children, I stayed as a human for two hours. I am now fully human, and will be forever. But your father is still an Andalite, and every two hours he demorphs, so he won't be stuck in human form."  
Ashley and Deirdre looked startled. Deirdre looked at Dad.   
"You, you… You're an.. Alien?"  
"Yes."  
I looked at my Dad. That face, those hands, those eyes were not really his? The lips that kissed my cuts and scrapes, the hands that held me when I was sad, they weren't real?  
I somehow felt cheated, and was about to say so, when Mom brought out a small blue box. It was glowing, and somehow I knew what it was, before Dad or Mom said anything.  
"This box gives the morphing power to the person who touches it. I.. no, We have decided to give you children this power, so that you can help us save earth. Will you help us? You will risk your life, and your freedom if you do this. You will have terrible nightmares. But there are good parts too. Being other animals, and helping to save the world, and being in on the biggest secret on earth. Will you join us?"  
I thought a moment, then nodded. After a few minutes, my sisters nodded too.   
"Don't be afraid" said Dad. Then I gasped, because his skin turned blue and brown. Two eyes grew out of his head, and his hands grew extra fingers. Legs popped out of the front of his body, and a tail sprouted. The tail grew a blade. His legs grew hooves and became like horse's legs. He had become an Andalite. He held the box out to me.  
Touch it, Jackie  
A voice! In my head! Not spoken aloud, but more like I had thought the words in my father's voice! I reached out and placed my hand against the box.   
FLASH!  
Five children, older than me, reached out their hands to touch a blue box. Many years in the future.   
FLASH!  
A tingle went up my whole body. I pulled away.  
It's done. Touch an animal, concentrate on it, and it's DNA is yours. Concentrate again, and you will be that animal. Now, you, Deirdre  
My mother gave a sad smile. Just as Deirdre put her hand on the box…  
BANG! The door was knocked down! Strange, dragon-looking creatures that could have only been the Hork-Bajir my father told me about stepped through.  
A voice, a gruff and scratchy, came from one of the Hork-Bajir.  
"So, you are the last left of the Andalites. Yes, fools, we have taken all the others. They killed themselves rather than be taken, but they led us to you. Humph."  
My father leaped forward, and began slashing with his tail. One Hork-Bajir's arm blade flew into my mother's lap.   
TSSSEEEEWWWW!  
My father glowed, then disappeared.  
I grabbed the blue box from Deirdre and jumped out the open window as fast as I could.   
I ran.  
I ran and ran.  
I turned back to look and see if my sisters and mother had gotten away. I turned back just in time to see my mother get shoved into a trunk of a car, and Deirdre's hands get tied behind her with a piece of rope.   
I heard their screams. But I did not scream. I did not yell. I just ran, swiftly and silently.  
No tears. No anger. No hurt.   
For some reason, I understood that my father had been killed doing his duty. His honor would stand forever, while the Yeerks would forever have a bloodstained past. His death was part of his glory. I also remembered the vision I had had. Five children, older than me, but still kids. I knew my destiny.  
Fight the Yeerks, and uphold my Father's honor, to meet these kids so much like me.  
Fight the Yeerks.  
Fight the Yeerks.  



	3. Chapter 2

  
Usual, though not normal, Life.  
  
  
I am Jacqueline. I have no family, no last name. Jacqueline isn't even my real name. I wish I knew a good Andalite name, but I don't. For I am an Andalite, though my form is human. I am also gifted with unusual intelligence. At least, that's what the people in the   
Family Foster Care center told me.  
It's been three years since I first learned about the aliens. Three years of running away from the Yeerks who never really saw my face. Three years of being homeless. Until eight months ago. I was found and sent here.   
This foster care center is pretty cool. There are about seventy or eighty kids, and forty adults. Life is normal. But there is also a club here that I'm starting to get suspicious about. It's called The Sharing. Seemingly, it's a boy/girl scout troop. But, I've followed a few of it's members, and found out that there is a Yeerk Pool underneath the Center. I've also found out more than I ever wanted to know about the alien invaders. Using the morphing power, I've learned that every three days, the Yeerk slugs must drain into the Yeerk Pool to feed. If they don't, they die. Hmmm. I've acquired a Dracon Beam. I test it every month, when no one is watching, just to make sure it still works. I don't want to find out it's batteries or whatever ran out when a Hork-Bajir is standing over me.   
I don't fight the Yeerks. I am not a soldier. I am a spy.  
I gather information about the Yeerks, the Hork-Bajir, and the Taxxons. I have mapped the Yeerk Pool area, and found out where the patrols of Hork-Bajir are. I save this information, hoping that when the Andalites come, they can make use of it.   
I spend every second of every day, waiting for the Andalites to come and rescue me.   
Anyway, I have been doing this for several months. In fact, something strange had been going on for several days, and it was up to me to find out what it was. People suddenly and swiftly joining the Sharing. Newest members becoming leaders so quickly.   
Usually, the new members join the Sharing for fun, and after a few weeks they either submit to becoming a controller, or are forced. Either way, it takes some time. But now, it seemed like new controllers just popped up out of nowhere. Didn't join the Sharing, didn't get in trouble, just random people suddenly becoming controllers. Weird. At the rate of one new controller a day, it was a very bad situation for me. In a few weeks, the Yeerks here may have doubled.  
So I had to figure out what was going on.   
Great.  
A Mission Impossible.   
Perfect.  
  



	4. Chapter 3

A little research and a lot of planning.  
  
  
  
I went through my memory and made a list of everyone I knew had become a controller. Then I followed everyone I thought had become a controller. It was the work of several weeks, because I had to follow each suspect for three days to see if they were controllers.  
The final count was 24 children and no adults. The children had no connections at all. Some of them knew each other and some didn't. 11 girls and 13 boys.   
I almost gave up trying to find the reason they were controllers, but then I had an inspiration. I mapped out the Center and marked each of the beds where the new controllers slept. A pattern! They took the boy/girl in the bottom bunk in every other room.   
If you expected my life to be full of morphing and battling, think again. I morphed very rarely. Most of the time, I did the detective work, such as mapping the bunks of controllers.  
That night, when everyone else was sleeping peacefully, I went into the second grade classroom that they have here at the Center.   
"Ok, Lucky, time for your vacation."   
Sometimes I found it useful to morph our resident hamster, Lucky. Just in case I was caught, I always hid the real Lucky. If someone found me, they'd think Lucky had escaped from his cage. They'd put me in the cage, I'd go out through the secret trap door I had installed in the cage (Lucky doesn't know about this trapdoor yet) and morph back. I'd put Lucky in his cage and sneak off to bed. Easy.  
I quietly opened the cage and picked up Lucky. He was barely an inch long. I put him in the plastic container I always had at ready, hid him, and opened the lid so someone would think they had just forgotten to close the lid. If they found me at all. I had only been found once in hamster morph.   
I stood in front of a mirror and started to morph. First My ears grew tall and pointed. They slid up to the top of my head. Meanwhile I was shrinking. My hair turned gray, and shortened.   
"I must be getting older. Not only is my hair turning gray, but I'm going bald!" I quietly joked as my hair became very, very short fur.   
Then my whole body turned pink. My skin was the pink of uncooked chicken. Then I sprouted fur over the rest of my body. My knees reversed direction, and my nose sprouted out from my face. I grew whiskers. Glancing in the mirror, I realized that my eyes had stayed the same size throughout the morph.  
"GuuhhRoss!" I squealed. Actually, it came out more like:  
"eee eee ee e ee e"   
I finished the morph, and I was blinded. But who needed eyes? I could smell and hear.  
I scrambled under the door. I was scared. And blind! I was scared and blind and there were predators, and no food or water, and I was not in my home and I couldn't go back and there were predators and…  
Snap out of it! I told myself. The instincts of the hamster were mostly fear and worry. It wasn't intelligent, but somehow it's mind took over my intelligence, causing it to worry about what the hamster was afraid of.   
Room 157, room 159, Aha! Room 161!   
I crept under the door, and hid under a shirt that was lying on the floor. I tried to focus my hamster eyes on the bottom bunk. That's where the new controllers slept. The Yeerks hadn't done anything to her in the day, so I figured they must do something at night.  
I heard a noise.   
OH NO! THE DOOR IS OPEN AND A PREDATOR IS COMING AND I'M IN DANGER AND I'M HUNGRY AND SCARED AND THE PREDATOR WILL EAT ME AND IT'S COMING AND THE DOOR IS OPEN AND I CAN'T DIG A HIDING PLACE AND .  
STOP! I told myself. It's just the door. This is what I'm here for. Three kids crept in, and one adult. The adult gave a gesture to the others. He then grabbed the sleeping child's arms, while two of the kids held her legs. She woke up, kicking and screaming, for she didn't know what was going on. My sensitive ears heard a sound like a jar being opened. I tried to look up, straining my neck. Then I stood on my hind legs, and I could see better. The fourth controller kid was holding something. She held it against the girl's head for a moment, then took out a Dracon Beam weapon. She shot the girl with it, then they all ran away. I demorphed quietly, and looked at the girl. She was still alive, but the controllers had stunned her with the Dracon Beam (Dracon beams have different power settings, from stun to disintegrate) . I checked her name.   
Rebecca Stevenson.  
Well, Becca, we'll see about you.   
We'll see.  



	5. Chapter 4

The plot thickens!  
(NaNuhhhhhhhhhh! Detective music.)  
  
The next morning, I followed Rebecca around. (And for those of you who are wondering, I did not morph to follow her. This book isn't about some kid who turns into animals and fights Yeerks. That's a different series. This is about MY battle with the Yeerks, how I dealt with them.)  
She did her chores, did schoolwork, talked to her friends, and played Nintendo. Nothing weird or abnormal.  
But, in the three years I've known about the Yeerks, I've realized. You can't tell if they're controllers. The Yeerk knows the victim's very thoughts, so it's impossible to tell.   
Later that day, I had to stop following her, because some friends of mine came over.   
You see, we're allowed to have friends outside of the orphanage. When I have time outside on Saturday, I spend it with my friends that I made the previous Saturday.   
My friend, Marco, visited me. He brought along his weird friend, Phillip, and his friend Eric. Marco always comes out of the woods when he heads to the orphanage. I don't know why.   
Anyway, Marco and his friends came to say hi.   
"Hey, Jackie, what's up?"  
"Nothing much. Work, school, more work, more school." Fighting Yeerks, Morphing, more fighting Yeerks, more morphing.  
"Hello, Jaaacckeeeeeeeeeeeee. Jackeeeeeeeeeeeee. Eeeeeeeeeeeee."  
Phillip, of course. I think something is wrong with that kid.  
Phillip sniffed loudly, then smiled. A weird smile. I looked away from him.  
"Hello, Jacqueline."  
"Hey Eric. So what are you guys doing here? Is something wrong?"  
Marco and Eric exchanged glances. I started wondering, why exactly was Marco here? Is he a controller here to look at whatever new project is going on? Was I wrong for distrusting my friend? Or did I have a reason not to trust him? Am I getting hysterical without saying a word? Am I going to wear out the question mark key on this keyboard before Marco says something?  
"Well, actually Jackie, we're…."  
A scream came from the kitchen. We heard the crash of dishes and more screams.  
A thick woman's voice that sounded suspiciously like our cook said "Get out of here, you nasty little boy! No! Drop those! Those are for breakfast tomorrow! Help! Police!"  
"Hey, Marco, where's Phillip?" I asked, noticing that the boy was gone.  
Marco took off running toward the kitchen. Eric politely said goodbye, then followed Marco.  
Boys.  
Ugh.  
Anyway, I had lost Rebecca. But it didn't matter. I went to my room and thought about it a while. They had carried a jar into her room. They held the jar up to her ear. Yeerks go into your brain through your ear! There was a Yeerk in that jar! The Yeerks were taking kids in their sleep! How was I going to stay alive now?  
  



	6. Chapter 5

  
A little luck, a lot of hope.  
  
  
A couple days later, I was still trying to think of what to do. I was carefully mapping what kids became controllers and was happy to see they wouldn't come to me for at least a week.   
A week. That wasn't much time.  
Later that week, Saturday evening, I was taking a stroll through the woods, when I heard a noise. I quickly climbed a tall tree and hid in the branches. From up there, I was able to see two birds of prey land on the forest floor. An osprey and a falcon, I think.   
Suddenly, the osprey started to grow. So did the falcon! The osprey grew and grew until it was about three feet tall. It's feathers slurped back into it's skin, and the beak turned into a human nose and mouth. The falcon looked gross, because it had human feet and human arms but a bird's body. Finally The osprey was completely human, and so was the falcon. But they weren't birds anymore. The former-falcon was now a boy I didn't recognize. And the osprey was Marco! My friend Marco!   
Marco had just changed from a bird to a human! He had morphed!  
It suddenly hit me. Marco was an Andalite!  
"Well, Jake, this will be interesting. When we get in there, what are we going to do, huh? I mean, all Erek knows is that the number of controllers here has doubled. SO what do we do?"  
"We talk to the other android, and then take a look around. Check out the Sharing, if it's meeting. Erek said that the controllers here aren't worried about Andalites at all. So it'll be a cinch. My worry is that we'll get caught by an adult. If we get caught, what'll our excuse be?"  
"We're here to see Jacqueline."  
"Who?"  
"Jacqueline. She's this little girl, eleven, twelve years old. She thinks that we're friends, sort of. When I found out about the mission, I started hanging with her more. So, if we get caught, then we have a nice visit with Jackie and try again next week."  
Jake started talking about how it wasn't right to use someone like that, but they were walking away as they spoke.  
Don't worry. I wasn't upset. Nothing ever upsets me. I may be excited, or worried, but never majorly worried. I didn't care if Marco used me. I cared that someone else fought the Yeerks.   
I climbed down the tree and ran back to the Center. I had taken a shortcut, so I had a few minutes before Marco and Jake arrived.   
That's why Marco always came out of the woods! He morphed to get here!  
Android? Erek was an android? Another ally!   
Little girl! Eleven or twelve! Marco was 14, but still. Little! Ha. I can morph the same size animal you can, buddy.   
The front door opened. I heard Marco's voice.  
"Hey Marco! I'm glad you could visit today!" I said cheerfully. I was trying to appear normal.   
"Oh. Hi, Jackie." Marco looked annoyed. "Jake, this is Jackie. Jackie, my main man, Jake."  
" Hello, Jake! Listen, Marco, I got a new game I want you to see. Come on up to my room! I'll show it to you."  
Marco looked disappointed, Jake looked kind of sick. I led the way up to my room.  
On the way up, I heard Marco and Jake whispering. I knew what they were whispering about, and I didn't care.  
I closed the door.  
"Jackie, we can't stay long. Where is your new game?"  
I looked at Marco.   
FLASH!  
Five kids, reaching their hands out to touch a blue cube.  
FLASH!  
"Marco, I don't have a new game, but I do have something to give you."  
I went to my close, and pulled out my box of junk. I dumped it out, and opened a secret compartment in the bottom. Jake looked at me funny, and Marco looked angry. But both looks changed when I held out…  
"Marco, this is my Dracon gun. I almost died getting that thing out of the Yeerk Pool Area. You can use it, but I'd like to keep it. And this is My Hork-Bajir claw. I found it at the Yeerk Pool area too. And this, this is a picture of the Yeerk Pool Area. Sorry it's only a Polaroid, but I didn't want to risk having the film developed. An this is the map I made of Hork-Bajir and Taxxon Patrols down in the Pool Area. And this, this is the blue box that my father, the Worthy Andalite Warrior, gave to me. I want to keep that too, but you can have the rest. They might help you! I saw you guys morphing in the woods, and I'm glad I did, because now you two can help me fight the Yeerks."  
Jake and Marco stared at me. I gave them a condescending smile.  
"Listen, Marco, if you didn't understand everything this little eleven or twelve year old girl said, I'd be happy to repeat it slowly for you. I'm not blaming you, though, because if pretending to be friends with a 10 year old would help me fight the Yeerks, I'd do it, too. But I'd at least feel bad about it."  
Jake and Marco stared at me some more. Finally, Jake said,  
" You… you fight the Yeerks?"  
"Yes, and I can morph."  
"Ok." He still looked kind of shocked. "Jacqueline, we'll come back tomorrow. There will be seven of us, so be ready. We might come in many different forms, so…"  
"Jake, I can morph too. I understand. But first answer one question. Are you humans or Andalites?"  
"Human."  
"Ah. Good."  
Jake left. Marco stared at me some more. Finally he said,  
"I thought you were a controller!"  
"I thought you were too."  
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Jacqueline. Bye"  
"Bye"  



	7. Chapter 6

A little adventure, a lot of discovery.  
  
The next day, the Sharing had an emergency meeting. Only high-ranking controllers attended. Plus one Lucky the Hamster. I used all the Hamster's instincts to hide and creep within hearing of the meeting. This is what I heard.  
"The new Beam was damaged during transportation. We need as many mechanics as possible down there repairing it."  
"It was damaged? How much?"  
"If it is left more than a few days longer, then it will self-destruct, blowing one of the biggest highways in this state to pieces. Plus, any fool human could discover it, and take pictures."  
"What are we supposed to do?"  
"Get as many mechanics out there to stabilize it, and transport it to the nearest entrance. The Visser himself will be waiting for it, so we have to hurry."  
"The Visser" must mean Visser Three. Visser Three is the only Yeerk to take over an Andalite body.   
Well. What was this new beam for? What kind of beam was it? A Dracon beam?  
I got out of the meeting, and morphed to parakeet.(Hey, I said all I have are the most basic house pets.) After a lot of flapping, I found what seemed to be a major road accident. Two eighteen wheelers had crashed. I flapped my scrawny wings, and saw boxes labeled in a foreign language. Or was it an alien language? I saw tracks on the ground, looking like something huge and heavy had been dragged into the woods.  
I wish I had a bird of prey morph I complained to no one. These little wings aren't meant for long-distance flying. I landed beside the trucks, and demorphed. Checking to see if anyone was around, I crept into the truck, and opened one of the boxes. It was full of things that could only have been….  
Eggs!  
But what kind of eggs? I picked one up, and carried in out of the truck. I was about a mile from the orphanage, carrying an egg, and I was wearing a bathing suit.(You can only morph tight clothing. A bathing suit is better then walking around naked after morphing.) How was I supposed to get out of this mess?   
I decided to check out the woods. Carrying the egg carefully, I stayed about thirty or forty feet to the left of the tracks. After all, I didn't want to run into the people that made them.   
Finally, I came upon a machine. There were some people standing around, talking, but they left. I took a good look at the machine.  
It was about twenty feet tall. It looked like a giant microscope, but where you would usually put the chemicals, or the leaves or whatever, there was a tray about 4 feet long. The tray had holes in it, that looked like the egg I was holding could fit in one of them. The tray was about two feet of the ground. To the right of the tray was a staircase. It led up to a platform with a bunch of controls, most of them looked like gauges. There was also a platform with a trapdoor in it above that.   
I took a closer look at the egg. It was about 3 inches long, and maybe 2 pounds. It was dark brown, with green spots. It was warm, but not hot. I looked around. Realizing what I had to do, I hid the egg underneath some leaves, and covered it with dirt. I morphed the parakeet, then flew about 100 yards, the demorphed and morphed into a dog. The reason I did this is because if the human-controllers found my tracks as a human, then they wouldn't worry. If they found dog tracks, they'd follow them. That would not be a good thing. As a dog, I ran the mile back to the Center, and grabbed the backpack I always keep for emergencies. I got some water from the dog bowl, grabbed the pack in my teeth, and ran back to the woods. I demorphed about 100 yards away from the machine again. I walked back to the giant machine. Opening the backpack, I took out my Polaroid camera, leaving the extra film in the bag, I took my map of town, my notebook and my red pen. I circled the place I was at on the map, and wrote a description of the place, the machine and the egg. Uncovering the egg, I took it's picture. I took a picture of the machine, and took pictures of the boxes. I put the egg in my backpack, and took a couple more eggs and put them in my backpack. I took pictures of the controls. Carefully making sure that the eggs were safe, I put everything else back in my backpack. I took the backpack, went back to the truck, used my Dracon gun on the empty box that I had emptied of eggs, and left. I walked back to the Center.  
Jake, Marco, Phillip(a.k.a. Ax)Cassie, Tobias, Rachel and Erek came back a little after that. I had a lot of schoolwork and chores to do, because I had missed regular chore and school times with my little adventures, so I told them to come back around three o'clock. Once I was done Math, French, Science, did dishes, laundry, and played with the Hamster, I began getting ready. First, I wrote done everything of importance that I had gathered about the Yeerks. I cleaned up, made sure there was room for all of them to sit down. It was 2:30. I sat down.   
What did I expect Marco and the rest to do with me?   
They've had their group for so long, it might take a long time to get used to a new member.   
New member?  
Right. A new member who can't come out at night, can't be reached in an emergency, can't acquire more than the most basic house pets, and is two years younger than everyone else.   
They wouldn't have me join their group. But what would they do?   
Use me for information.   
That's all.   
Would they help me run away from the Center? Would they take care of me? Would they protect me? Would they teach me?   
No.  
Then why was I so excited that I've found them?  
They'd help me get rid of the Yeerks here. And they'd avenge my father.   
Sure. They'd get rid of my only reason for living. Fighting Yeerks.  
Something scratched on my door. I opened it.   
"Hey, Midnight! Good dog! Come on in"  
I scratched Midnight's ear. Then I moved down his back.   
A little left, and down please. Yeah you got it. That feels so goood!  
I jumped up. Midnight started morphing into a human. It was Marco. Then something on Marco started morphing.  
"Eeeewwww a flea!" I said, not really as disgusted as I sounded. The flea turned out to be Jake. A mouse crawled into my room, which was the Andalite. And pretty soon, two flies came zooming in. Rachel and Cassie. A cockroach crawled in, who was Tobias, the hawk, and a girl I knew had been adopted some time ago came in, , turning out to be Erek, the android, in a hologram.   
I sat down on a chair, the rest sat on beds and stools.   
And I told them.   
I told them about my father. About the Yeerk Pool.   
I showed them the maps I had drawn. The entrances to the Yeerk Pool.  
Marco made a couple of jokes, and Rachel made a couple of comebacks, but otherwise everyone was quiet.   
When I told them about the accident, the machine and the egg, Aximili got excited.   
"Show me these eggs."  
I brought out my backpack, and brought out the eggs. There were four of them. I handed one to Ax. He was getting very excited, but he told me to show him the other things.  
"An egg. What kind of egg is it?" Marco asked. "A snapping turtle? A cobra? A really, really big blue jay?"  
Ax looked at me. Then he said the last word I ever expected to hear.  
"Hork-Bajir."  



	8. Chapter 7

What a twist, huh!  
  
  
"A Hork-Bajir egg? Gross!" Rachel said.  
"Rock-a-bye baby,   
With all the blades,  
Daddy will love you  
When he needs a shave." sang Marco.  
Rachel and I laughed.   
"Well finally, another sane person with a good sense of humor."  
"Obviously, we're the only two here who fit that description." Rachel joked, putting her arm on my shoulder.   
"Ha ha ha."  
Jake looked worried.   
"A Hork-Bajir egg? Four eggs to the box, and from these pictures, there must have been hundreds of boxes."  
Marco became serious too.  
"Two hundred boxes makes eight hundred eggs. Eight hundred Hork-Bajir."  
"I didn't know you could sleep in math class and learn at the same time, Marco."  
"Not counting twins. Ing. Iiiiiinnng. Inguh." said Ax in reply to Marco.  
"What are we going to do with these four?" asked Cassie reasonably.   
"Give them to Tobias. After all, birds are meant to sit on eggs, right?" Marco joked.  
Ax smiled. He shook his head.  
"Prince Jake, we don't have to worry about eight hundred Hork-Bajir hatching at once. Hork-Bajir eggs take 1 year to hatch. And these are about two weeks old."  
"How can you tell how old they are?" asked Cassie.  
"By the color of the spots. The spots grow darker as the egg matures, then disappear completely just before it hatches."   
I watched how well the group worked together. You'd almost think they were the perfect actors, with the perfect script to act out. I wished that someday, I could fit into a group like that. I realized, later, that if one person had been missing, the conversation would have been fruitless.   
"What are we going to do with these eggs?" I asked.  
"Give them to the Hork-Bajir, in the valley. They're a colony of free Hork-Bajir. Four eggs would help them a lot."  
Everyone smiled at that. But then I realized.  
"But eight hundred eggs would help them more."  
Everyone looked at me.   
"If we can get all the eggs to the Hork-Bajir, then they can hatch them. In a year, they'll have eight hundred more Hork-Bajir to fight the Yeerks." I said. Then I remembered a problem.  
"Yeah! Then we can beat the Yeerks by storming the Yeerk Pool!" exclaimed Jake. But then, he, too, realized why it wouldn't work.   
Cassie voiced our thoughts for us.  
"In a year, when they hatch, the war might be over. When they hatch, it might be back into slavery by the Yeerks. Or, if we win, they'll hatch, and be found by humans."  
Everyone quieted down. Then Jake turned to Erek.   
"Erek, you haven't said anything yet. What do you think about all this?"  
Erek was silent for a minute, then he replied:  
"If the war will be over in a year, why do the Yeerks want eight hundred Hork-Bajir eggs?"  
Everyone thought a minute. Then I looked at the clock.  
"It's four thirty. You guys better leave, especially if you're flying home."  
"Alright. We'll be back at seven o'clock to check out the accident?" Jake looked at all the members of the group, and all of them nodded. "Meet us outside. Do you have a bird morph?"  
I stated, with as much dignity as I could. "I have a parakeet morph."  
Marco, Rachel, Jake and Cassie all smiled. Cassie coughed and Marco giggled.  
Jake said. " A parakeet. Great. Listen, you need a better flyer. Cassie, can you hook her up with a owl, or at least a hawk?"  
Cassie said yes, she had one in her barn.  
"Alright. Jacqueline, get a bug morph. Ride on Cassie to her barn, get the owl morph, fly back here on your own. Better yet, Tobias, fly her here and back. Got it?"  
"Sir, yes sir!" said Marco, causing everyone to giggle again.  
  
  
  



	9. Chapter 8

Action and Adventure!  
  
  
  
  
While Tobias was taking me to Cassie's barn, we had a long talk. He told me everything about the others, and all the adventures and battles they had been in. He even told me that they had a special name. ANIMORPHS. I thought it was really neat.  
We talked about David.   
David was the kid who joined the Animorphs, and turned evil. He tried to kill the other   
Animorphs, and almost succeeded. Now he is a rat. He was trapped in morph for two hours. The other Animorphs forced him to be trapped.   
That scared me.  
Could they do that to me?  
Would they?  
I reached the barn, and acquired the owl. Tobias and I went back outside and I morphed the owl.  
First, my eyes changed. I could see more clearly, and darkness didn't bother me. Then my feet became talons. I shrunk and shrunk while my arms turned into wings. My nose and mouth squished together to become a beak. I was an owl.   
Then the instinct kicked in.  
I was hungry. And I had the ability to kill anything.   
I turned. I wanted prey. Prey to kill. To eat.  
A bird! It had talons and a sharp beak, but it would not defeat me. It would be my dinner.   
Ok, Jackie, you might have a little trouble with the instinct at first, but try to assert yourself   
I hissed. I lunged into the air, then dove quickly and raked my claws forward to kill Tobias.  
Tobias?  
No!  
I pulled up just in time, my talons just inches away from Tobias.   
What was that?  
Sorry, I lost control for a second. Sorry.  
It's alright. But from now on, someone else is staying with you when you acquire new morphs.  
Hey, I said I was sorry.  
Oh. I didn't mean it like that. I meant that two people at once should stay with you.  
Oh.  
We flew back to the Center. Ax and Tobias stayed with me. We sat in the woods, so Ax could be his own Andalite self.   
"Ax, since both my parents were Andalites, does that make me an Andalite?"  
Ax thought a moment.  
Yes. You could be accepted by the Andalite people, able to take part in all our customs and ceremonies. But I doubt any Andalite would truly accept you.  
"Oh. Ax?"  
Yes?  
"Do you know any good Andalite girl's names?"  
Why, Jackie? Why do you need an Andalite name any more than I need one because I'm half Andalite? Tobias looked at me with the cold stare of a bird of prey.  
"Tobias, it's just, my Dad would have wanted me to be a True Andalite. Jacqueline just doesn't represent that. You probably wouldn't understand, but… There's something different about me. I don't know what it is, but I need an Andalite name."  
Oh. Makes perfect sense. Tobias thought sarcastically, but not meanly.   
Well, Jacqueline, Andalites have three names. I am Aximili Esgarouth Isthill, my brother was Elfangor Sirinial Shamtul. We believe that names should be suited to what you are. When we name our children, we name them by what we want them to be. If you were an extraordinarily attractive Andalite, then your first name would probably be Haranestha. If you were unattractive, you first name might be Haran. The more syllables in your name, the higher in status you are about the quality your name stands for. Your middle name is your father's name if you're a male, your mother's if you're female. There are many exceptions to the rule, just because people want to name their children something else. The naming tradition is not very strict.  
"So, what is your word for Unbendable?"  
Well, it's a male's name.  
"But what is it?"  
Tureshna.  
"And your word for alone?  
Silligar  
"Then I am Tureshna Silligar Esgarouth.   
Ax smiled, with his eyes.  
"What's so funny?"  
Tureshna Silligar Matful was one of my good friends, back on the Andalite home world.  
"Oh." Great. But I felt great inside.  
I had an Andalite name!   
My father would have been pleased, I thought.  
I didn't realize I'd said that aloud until Ax said,  
Yes, he would have.  
  
When Jake and the rest arrived, I led the way to where the crash had happened. The trucks were still there, but they were empty of boxes. We dived down and demorphed, except for Tobias, who landed on Rachel's shoulder.   
So, where is it, Jacqueline? Tobias asked.  
"Yeah, Jackie, where is this machine of yours?" Marco asked suspiciously.  
I looked around. This was where the Machine had been, but there was nothing around but woods. I looked down.  
"But the tracks where they dragged it are here! They start about here," I followed the tracks down, "and they end right…"  
Suddenly, I saw it. The Machine was right where it had been before! I turned around. There were the Animorphs, standing around and looking confused.  
"Hey guys! It's right here!" I yelled.  
They didn't react.  
"Hey! Over here! It's right here, don't you see it!"  
They didn't answer. They just started looking more confused.  
What were they, blind?  
I walked toward them. When I was about ten feet from the machine, Jake suddenly looked up.  
"Jackie, what happened? And where's the Machine?" Jake looked mad.   
"It's right behind me! See, it's right…"  
I turned as I was talking. Nothing was there. The Machine was gone again.  
  
  



	10. Chapter 9

It's an alien thing.  
  
  
I walked back towards where it had been. I reached my hand forward.   
My hand disappeared!  
I pulled it back, and looked at Ax.  
A hologram.  
"Oh. Well, let's have a look at this Machine."  
Jake stepped in front of me and disappeared. Marco disappeared. Rachel disappeared.   
Then I stepped forward. I guess I disappeared too.  
The machine was right there.   
The Animorphs examined it, looking it over. Ax went up the stairs, with a little help from Cassie.   
This control panel is strange.  
"Ax, can you tell us what this thing is?"  
Ax turned on stalk eye towards Jake, one towards me, and kept his main eyes on the panel.  
I don't know. I've never seen anything like it.  
Suddenly, Cassie yelled from the other side of the Machine,  
"Hey! Here are the eggs!"  
We rushed over there. Yes, there were the cardboard boxes of eggs. I opened one, and took out an egg.  
"Jake, I just thought of something. These things don't hatch for almost a year, right?"  
"Yeah."  
I took an egg, and walked back to the front of the machine. Looking at the machine carefully, I thought a moment.  
"Ax, could you figure out how to turn this thing on?"  
Of course. thought Ax, and his telepathy sounded a little hurt.  
"Go up there, and turn it on when I say."  
Prince Jake?  
Jake gave me a strange look, and then told Ax to do what I said. I don't think Jake liked me giving orders.  
I put the egg into one of the holes in the tray. It fit perfectly. I climbed up on the tray and adjusted the pointer end of the microscope-looking thing to point at the egg.  
I jumped off.  
"Ok, Ax, turn it on please."  
Ax did something to the panel. The thing that pointed at the egg started to glow. Then, the glow shot out at the egg. The egg grew bigger as the glow enwrapped it. It grew to be about eight inches long, then the spots grew dark.   
"Turn it off! Now!"  
Ax turned it off.  
I picked up the egg, and went up to the platform.   
"Ax, how old is this egg?"  
Ax picked it up, and his eyes went wide.(All four of them.)   
This egg looks about forty to fifty weeks old!  
I looked down at Jake.  
He was looking at everyone else. I said it first.  
"This thing, this Machine, is like a giant incubator! They can hatch all of these Hork-Bajir in seconds!"  
  
  



	11. Chapter 10

Worst thing possible.  
  
  
We thought about it for a while, trying to decide what to do. Finally we came up with,  
1. Let the Yeerks have their Hork-Bajir.  
2. Destroy both the machine and the eggs.  
3. Take the eggs to the free Hork-Bajir.   
4. Hatch all the Hork-Bajir and take them to the free Hork-Bajir.  
  
We had decided to do number 4, when I heard something coming, through the woods.   
"Hide!"  
We raced to the other side of the Machine. All the others started morphing, except Ax. I watched them, wonderingly. Each morph was different. I realized they were morphing battle morphs. Jake was a tiger, Cassie a wolf, Marco a gorilla, Rachel a grizzly bear, and Ax was himself. Tobias was a hawk. Tobias flew up and looked at the people coming.  
About thirty yards away from where the hologram starts. Four Hork-Bajir, twenty human controllers. All armed with Dracon Beams. Jackie, why haven't you morphed?  
I looked around. A bear, a tiger, a wolf, a gorilla, an Andalite, a hawk. What morphs did I have?  
Hurry up! They're coming! Tobias said urgently.  
I had dog, cat, hamster, owl, parakeet, fly. I chose quickly.  
My fingers quickly shrunk into claws. My knees reversed direction. I grew long, black fur.   
I felt kind of embarrassed morphing in front of the Animorphs. Especially when they were bears and tigers and I was a…  
A dog?! That's all you have?! Jake almost yelled in thought-speech.  
But then the Hork-Bajir came crashing into the hologram. Which means that they saw us.  
"Andalite! Andalite! Snarf glauresh eggs! Kill!" One of them yelled. Immediately the other Animorphs started attacking. Ax's tail flashed, Jake bit and scratched, Rachel roared, Marco punched.   
I whimpered.  
Then I saw a man raising a gun, aiming at Marco.  
I lunged! I grabbed the gun. I dropped it, then snarled at the man, leaped and bit. I grabbed the gun in my mouth again, raced up the platform, and demorphed. Hidden from the other controllers, I took the Dracon gun, and fired.  
TZZZAPPP!  
One Hork-Bajir down, just before it cut off Cassie's paw.  
TZZZAPPP!  
Another Hork-Bajir down!  
I quickly took care of the Hork-Bajir. Then, I aimed at the Human controllers. Don't worry, I was a good shot.  
TZZZAPPP!  
One Dracon Beam Weapon sizzled into nothingness, while being held by a human controller. The human controller stared at his hand, as if he couldn't believe his gun was gone. He wasn't hurt, but he ran away anyway. Fast.  
The other controllers ran away too. I ran down the stairs.   
"Are you all alright?"  
Jackie, behind you!  
I whirled.  
TZZZAPPP!  
  
I woke up. Everyone was rushing over to me. I must have only been unconscious for a second or two. The Dracon Beam had just knocked me out. I was relieved. Then I glanced at my right arm.  
It was gone. My arm was totally gone!  
I didn't scream or cry. I just froze.  
Morph! Cassie yelled. Morph and when you demorph, it'll be fine!  
I concentrated. And morphed the owl.  
I demorphed, almost exhausted.   
I looked at my hand. It was still there.  
I didn't cry. Or laugh. I just stood there.  
Then I said, "Are you guys alright?"  
They looked at me. And I swear, I swear, that the tiger grinned.  
I don't exactly know how thought-speak works, but I guess I was close enough to hear what Jake said privately to Cassie.  
That is one courageous kid.  
They demorphed.   
I noticed the Machine had been damaged during the fight. The control panel had a hole in it from a Dracon Beam.  
And then I had another idea.   
"Cassie, I need to know if you have…" I whispered the animal's name into her ear.  
She looked startled, then she smiled.   
"Yeah. I know what you're getting at. Everyone, follow me to the Gardens."  
Cassie grew wings, then shrunk.  
I started morphing the owl. It was really dark, and the owl's eyes were great.   
We all flew to the Gardens, which the others told me was a zoo where Cassie's mom worked.  
It's not a zoo! It's a wildlife park.  
Meaning a place where animal freaks keep animals locked up but they don't want to call it a zoo. Marco quipped.  
The argument went on all the way there. This group was really cool.  
We landed in the habitat that I had said to Cassie, then demorphed quickly. I was exhausted from all the morphing, but didn't want to admit it, especially after morphing a dog for battle. Talk about embarrassing. We acquired the animal, then morphed it and flew out. We flew back to the machine. I demorphed. I grabbed a box, threw it open, and grabbed the four eggs.   
You have good ideas, Jacqueline. I don't think even Cassie could have thought this up. Marco joked as I loaded eggs into his beak. I mean, even she wouldn't have thought of pelicans.   
I loaded each of the Animorphs up with eggs, and sent them to the Hork-Bajir Valley. Then I opened another box. I morphed the pelican once again, grabbed the eggs in my beak, which had more than enough room, and flew off, following the others.   
We managed to transport eighty eggs before more controllers showed up. We destroyed the rest, with Cassie begging us not to. We couldn't leave them to the Yeerks, after all. Plus, we had the four eggs I had taken earlier, one of which was about ready to hatch.   
About two o'clock in the morning, we landed safely in my room. After demorphing, we congratulated each other, and talked about how much the eggs would help, even if they wouldn't hatch for a long time. Everyone but Jake and Marco left.   
"Jackie, good job tonight. This was your first really big mission, and your first battle. Your quick thinking and great shooting helped us a lot."  
I smiled. Then I froze.   
"Someone's coming. Quickly! Hide! Get in my closet and morph!"  
I jumped into bed, and pulled up the covers. Jake and Marco hustled into my closet, just as the door opened.  
I closed my eyes.  
"She's sound asleep." Someone whispered.   
I heard the sound like a jar being opened. Suddenly, someone grabbed my hands and feet.   
I remembered what had happened a few nights ago, in room 161. The controllers! They were going to take me!  
I started to scream, but a hand was put over my mouth. Then I felt it. A yeerk entering my ear! The pain! Then…  
TZZZAPPP!  
I felt nothing.  
  



	12. Chapter 11

I felt nothing.  
  
Slave to the Yeerks.  
  
  
I woke up. At first I didn't remember anything. Then…  
Oh no! I was a controller! I had to warn the Animorphs! I…  
Don't worry about warning your foolish little friends. They were in the closet, remember? They saw everything. An evil voice from inside my head!  
Get out! Get out of my head! I screamed silently!   
The Yeerk opened my eyes.  
It wasn't me! It had used my eyes! It really controlled me!  
It looked around.   
I was in the woods, tied up hand and foot.   
Marco and Cassie were standing over me.  
"What's happening?" I heard a voice say. I realized it was my own.  
"Jacqueline's a controller, you're a Yeerk. We know what happened last night, even though Jackie never told us about the new controllers. We had been tracking the new controllers for a long time, and tonight we found out exactly what has been happening."  
"What do you mean I'm a controller?" my voice said. "I'm not a controller! Untie me! I have to get back before they miss me at the Center! I'm gonna be in big trouble!"  
"We can't untie you, not for three days." Cassie said.   
The Yeerk couldn't sit up, because my body was tied up. I was on my back, in the dirt. My hands were tied up with rope. It was a hopeless situation for the Yeerk.  
I was thrilled.  
You will not win, human. No Yeerk has ever been starved out of his host before.  
"Don't worry, Jackie. Jake and I have both been controllers before, but we survived."  
"But I'm not a controller! You have to believe me!"  
"No we don't."  
The Yeerk thought a moment, then said,   
"I guess the only way to prove it is to wait three days. I won't try to escape. Please untie me, the ropes hurt!"  
Cassie and Marco looked a little uneasy. But they didn't untie me.  
Three days, Yeerk. You can't possibly escape them. Three days.  
Jake walked into my view.   
"Ok, Pick her up. We're going to tie her to the tree. It's a little more comfortable for her, and easier for us to guard her, and feed her."  
The Yeerk ignored them. While they tied me to the tree, he searched through my memory. He looked at my memories of life before I knew about the Yeerks. He looked at all the stuff I had done since then. He concentrated on the memory of entering the Hork-Bajir Valley.   
The rest of the day was boring, really. Rachel and Jake guarded me, and they read or did homework.   
How could I have been so stupid as to lose track of the days! I should have known that it was the day they were coming to my room! I should have prevented it! Now I was a controller, and it was to late. I could never return to the Center now, even if I was ever free again.   
You'll always be a slave, the Yeerk told me, and you will give your friends to the Yeerks, you'll give Earth to the Yeerks, and the Universe will be doomed, because of your mistake. We will be strong enough to take the Universe, because we took Earth. We took Earth because you gave us the Animorphs. Because of your mistake, the Universe will be ruled by the mighty and worthy Yeerks!  
Shut up, slug.  
Oho! crowed the Yeerk. The mighty, unbreakable Jackie is angry! Tureshna Silligar Esgarouth. Ha! Unbreakable and alone. Ha! You are a fool, Jacqueline. You think that if you become free, the Animorphs will accept you? They will protect you? You are a child to them. A child, who has become a great problem. You know their secret, and you are a controller. Do you think that if there was a way to keep me from knowing their secret, they'd still free you from my clutches? Ha! Jacqueline, you are stupider than your father, and you shame him.  
I was silent.   
The Animorphs stayed with me until nightfall. Then, they left me to Ax and Tobias.   
The Yeerk didn't talk to them at all. He just sat there, tormenting me in my mind.  
Then he said, You know, Jacqueline, the controllers at the Center aren't going to let you get away that easily. They probably have Hork-Bajir tracking you right now. They should be here anytime.  
You're lying.  
Ha ha ha. Believe that if you wish.  
Then, Hork-Bajir came rushing out of the woods! Four of them, with two human controllers following close behind. They attacked. I heard Tobias call out for help. Jake and Rachel, who were in falcon and eagle form, dived down, and morphed for battle.   
While the fighting was going on, the Yeerk in my head caused me to morph. I morphed a fly, and slipped through the ropes that had bound me to the tree. It flew a couple hundred yards away, then demorphed, and remorphed the owl. I flew above the treetops, the Yeerk rejoicing at it's easy victory. Then,   
THUD!  
A large object slammed against me. Then, talons raked my back!   
The Yeerk whipped around, and saw the osprey attacking it The Yeerk tried to lunge at it, but it grabbed my back with it's talons and forced the Yeerk to land. After the battle was over, they tied me up again, far away from the original place.   
Two more days. Two more days of moving from hiding place to hiding place. Two more days of being taunted by the yeerk in my brain, of it using my body to try and fight my friends. But, after three long, painful days, it finally crawled out of me and died. But I still didn't cry. I was ashamed that I had become such a problem to the Animorphs, but I didn't cry.  
I never cry.  
  



	13. Chapter 12

A trip to the zoo.  
  
  
After we had calmed down a little from that adventure (me staying hidden in Cassie's barn, dashing up to the hay-loft when her Mom or Dad came in,) Jake proposed a plan. We were, all seven of us, sitting in Cassie's barn. Jake, who had called the meeting, started to talk.  
"When our next big mission comes up, Jackie will need some better morphs."  
Time froze, for me at least.  
OUR? Meaning me too? I was going to get better morphs for OUR next mission?  
YES!!!!!!!!!!!! YES! I was part of their team now!  
"So, we're going to the Gardens. Jackie will be flying in, with Cassie. The rest of us will just be cover. Any questions?"  
"Yeah. What morphs so you think she'll need, Jake?" Cassie asked.   
"Jackie," he said to me," you'll need a battle morph, a bug morph, a swimming morph and a power morph. For an example, Rachel has the bear as her battle morph, fly and cockroach as her bug morphs, dolphin and whale and squid as swimming morphs, and the elephant for her power morph. She also has a wolf morph. You'll need one of those, too. Now, what morphs would you like?"  
I looked at the others, and thought a moment. I was about to speak, when Jake suddenly cut in again.  
"Don't get a lion morph. That's the one morph you aren't allowed to have."   
I looked at him quizzically, but the other Animorphs nodded.   
I was about to speak again, when,  
"After she acquires her morphs, can we go to the mall and have some of the delicious cinnamon buns? Bunz. Buuuuuuuuuuunz. Buns."  
I waited a minute, to see if anyone else would talk. No one did. So I said:  
"I have a fly. That can be my bug morph. I'd kind of like, for my battle morph, to have a big cat, like a tiger or lion. A lynx or leopard would be cool, too. For my power morph, I'd love to have a rhinoceros. And I think a dolphin would be hard to acquire, because I have to be in human form."  
"Ok, Cassie, try to hook her up with a big cat morph, not a lion, though. We've had a, well, sort of a bad experience with new Animorphs and lions. Please don't ask. But, get her a rhino, like mine, and the wolf when she gets back here, Ok? And get her any other morph she wants, but check it out with me first. I'll be down with Marco. Rachel? As soon as we're done, go to the mall and pick up a couple cinnabuns, Ok?"  
Ax was thrilled. I was ecstatic too, but not because of the prospect of cinnabuns. From what Tobias had told me, I didn't want to get between Ax and his food.  
I was happy because I was part of the team now. And I was getting new morphs. YES!  
  
We flew to the zoo, excuse me, the wildlife park and flew over a couple of exhibits. I peered down into the cages.   
So, where'd you like to start?  
I don't know. What exhibits are coming up?  
Well ,there's the water exhibit to the north, and to the west there's the monkey island. To the east over there is the elephant and rhino exhibit, and next to that is the alligator exhibit. Did Tobias tell you about the time when Rachel fell into one of those pits and morphed the alligator to save a little boy, but she was allergic to the morph, so….  
We talked all the way to the 'gator exhibit. After checking it out with Jake, I acquired an alligator. I had to remorph really quickly, or I would have gotten eaten. Once I was in the air again, we flew to the elephant and rhino exhibits and I acquired both of them. Then I demorphed, and we petted the dolphins. I'm glad no controllers saw me, since I was on the most wanted list, but we put on a little act about me asking Cassie about the dolphins, so if a controller did see, he wouldn't suspect Cassie of anything. I acquired a bat almost the same way. Then I acquired a wolf, and we left for the mall. Cassie went inside to meet the others at Cinnabun. I stayed in owl morph, because I couldn't go inside. The controllers knew my name and face, and if one saw me, it'd be all over. When they came out, Ax had a little icing in his hair, and Rachel was saying something about how a certain alien was going to have to spring for snacks from now on. We left, and headed back for Cassie's place.   
That night, once Cassie had left, I morphed the owl. I flew out of the barn, into the night sky. There was one morph that I desperately needed, that I hadn't gotten at the zoo. I flew for about an three hours, demorphing on the way every hour and a half. I found a family outside their house, watching the stars through a telescope. There was a mom, dad, a boy and a girl. The girl was about thirteen, and looking bored. I took a risk.  
Hey little girl. Don't worry, no one else can hear me. Only you.  
She looked around. She was surprised.   
Listen, don't say anything, but I need you to go somewhere away from your family for just a few minutes. I need your help. Can you go in the back yard or something?  
She nodded, then said something to her Mom. The mom nodded, then the girl ran into the house. The girl was very pretty, with black hair almost down to her waist. She was about 4'9". She would do perfectly.  
I flew over the backyard, and saw the girl sneak out of the house, and run towards the middle of the backyard.   
Don't be afraid.  
I landed next to her. She jumped, startled, but didn't say a word.  
What's your name, little girl?  
"Sarah. Who or what are you?"  
Don't be afraid. I'm an alien, sent to help save earth.  
"What?"  
Listen to me. I need to have your permission to change into you. I can change into people or things, other animals and stuff. But I need your permission before I change into you. It will help save earth. Will you?  
"Of course. But, how will this help save earth?"  
I don't have time to explain to you right now. I flew three hours to get here, and I must be back before dawn. But don't be afraid.  
I demorphed, and held her hand. I acquired her. Then I morphed back into an owl.  
You must not tell anyone about this, ever. And stay away from the club called The Sharing. Understood?  
She nodded. I took off, leaving her behind, stunned.  
I flew back to the barn, and found an angry group of Animorphs waiting for me.  
"Where in the world have you been, Jacqueline! Why did you sneak away from here, acquire a strange kid who might be a controller! And expect to come back here, without telling us where you'd gone!"  
"How did you know I was gone? How did you know? Did you follow me?"  
"Of course we followed you! Why would you do something like that!"  
I looked at them. Everyone was angry except Cassie. I turned to her.  
"I needed a human morph to be able to go out in public. I can't live with you forever! I have to be able to do something all day besides sit in the barn! Now I can meet you guys at the mall, and do stuff in town, even go to school! I made sure the girl lived far enough away that I won't run into her or anything!"  
"But what if she had been a controller? Jacqueline, you put us all in danger! After we just went to the trouble to get you better morphs! It was wrong!"  
I thought a moment.   
It was wrong!  
She could have been a controller! Or she might still be! She could tell her friends what she saw! Or she could become a controller! Someone might have seen us!  
"You're right." I said softly. "I'm sorry I did that so carelessly. I'm sorry I put all of us in danger. But I'm not sorry that I have a human morph."  
Jake looked startled. Everyone else did too. Marco and Rachel were still angry.   
"OK." Jake said slowly.   
Prince Jake, I don't like to contradict you, but the danger wasn't actually as great as that. The Yeerks already know that Jacqueline has dealings with Andalites. The only one really in danger now is that little girl.  
That was the first big blow-up that the Animorphs had with me. I hoped it was the last.  
  



	14. Chapter 13

Normal, (for me, anyway) happy life  
  
  
The next day, we arranged it for me to be in school. It was harder than you would think, getting the teachers and principal to believe that it was my dad calling, and not Jake half-morphed into a wolf. Anyway, school was great. I hadn't been to a real school since I was nine. I got to meet new kids, and have homework, and reports assigned. I loved it.   
Every two hours, I would demorph.   
After school, Marco and I did homework together, because we were in the same classes, then headed over to the mall. We met Jake and Rachel there, and Rachel dragged me into the Gap.   
I got two pairs of jeans, four new shirts and canvas shoes. I badly needed them, because the only clothes I had were the ones I'd worn out of the Center.  
I promised to Rachel that I'd pay her back somehow. She said to forget it.  
Everyone was soooo nice to me!   
We went to the movies together, and to the mall!  
About a week after that, I realised something.  
We hadn't had any missions yet! Which meant, the Animorphs, the other Animorphs I should say, were spending time with me because they liked me!  
But it bothered me that we hadn't done anything about the Center, and the stuff going on there. I mean, that used to be my home. I wanted to protect it. So, next meeting, I brought it up.  
We were in Cassie's barn. It was Friday, after school. Ax was talking about a TV show that he had seen, and he got half of what he said wrong. Marco was making fun of Ax, and Rachel was whispering to Cassie. Jake was listening to Ax, and trying not to laugh. I finally said,   
"Excuse me? Um, I don't mean to be rude, but I do want to talk about something important. What are we going to do about the controllers at the Center?"  
After a few minutes, when Jake had gotten everyone to calm down, we started discussing it like we discuss everything else that's important.  
When finally everyone stopped laughing again, I put my hand over Marco's mouth and asked again, "What are we going to do about the situation in the Center?"  
"I don't know. We don't know why they want all those kids there to be controllers. They want people in positions of power, not kids." Jake said.  
"Maybe... never mind." Cassie got quiet. Then she started again. "Maybe they want the Center for something, and they need to get rid of all the kids there."  
"Want it for something? Like what?"  
"Well, like maybe they want to mine something that is under the Center, or maybe…" Cassie broke off and started thinking.  
I thought a moment. Then I thought some more. Then I thought real hard.   
Nothing. I couldn't think of any reason the Yeerks would want the Center empty.  
Jake said something about spying out the Yeerk pool there.  
Rachel started talking about how we should just go in and destroy everything related to the Yeerks there.   
I thought about it a lot.   
The Center. Hmmm. Why would they want the Center? What was there at the Center that they'd want?  
The Center.  
The Center was a place not very high in the mountains, but still, it was pretty far up. It was a four story building, not counting the underground Yeerk Pool Area. It was surrounded by forest and mountains. Wait! Wasn't there something going on, something they had talked about…  
I thought some more. I remembered something that a controller had said. Something about a project, going on about a mile or two away. Something important.  
"Listen, I remember a controller talking about something going on a mile or two away. A little ways from the truck accident, where we found those eggs. Should we check it out?"  
Jake looked around.   
It was cool watching Jake. He probably hated being the leader of this little army. But, he took the role so naturally, I guess the Animorphs had no choice but to appoint him leader. He always made the really tough decisions, the ones we couldn't vote on. He set the plans. I couldn't ever imagine this team working without him.   
"Ok, we might check it out. Tomorrow Ok?"  
Marco shook his head. "Not me, man, tomorrow my Dad and I are going somewhere."  
"Tomorrow, my Mom got plane tickets for me to visit my Dad. Sorry, I won't be back until Monday."  
"Ok then. Tuesday, after school, we fly up there? Until then, Tobias, could you take a look around up there? Maybe with Ax and Jackie?"  
Hold on, let me check my day-planner. Hmm. I can schedule you in right between killing a mouse and killing a rat.  
Marco smiled, and I laughed. Marco and I seem to find the same things funny.  
After everyone left, Tobias told me he was going to grab a mouse. Could I wait in the barn for a few minutes?  
I said sure, and he and Ax left. I scrambled up to my hay loft.   
I was always grateful for some time to think. That day, I thought about Marco.  
Marco was funny. He was always making jokes, always keeping the Animorphs from realising exactly how hopeless their situation was.   
He was also really vain. He thought all the girls in the world thought he was cute.   
He was. He was totally, outrageously cute. But that didn't mean I liked him. I just thought, yes, he is cute.   
He was kind of ruthless. Kind of mean. Angry. But cool.  
I felt really sorry for him, knowing his mother was Visser One, most powerful of the Yeerks. It must be really weird, knowing your Mom is a controller.   
Jake. Quieter, calmer, smarter than Marco. Cassie and him seemed to be together, but it was hard to tell.  
Tobias. I didn't know him very well, but Marco had made it clear with his many jokes and comments that Rachel and Tobias were together.   
Tobias came back, and Ax was with him. Ax morphed a harrier. Tobias was himself.   
I prepared to morph the osprey that I had acquired.   
The other Animorphs tell me that Cassie is good at morphing. They also tell me that I am too. I wouldn't know, really.  
My fingers turned into long, feathers, that stretched and stretched. Feathers seemed to travel down my arms and legs. My toes slurped into my feet, and three of them became talons. My feet turned scaly, My eyes became osprey eyes.  
Then, and only then, when I was totally osprey, did I start to shrink.   
When I was done, I saw Tobias and Ax staring at me.  
Wow. You are good at morphing. Well, ready to fly?  
Of course. I'm always ready to fly! I laughed!  
I flapped my wings as hard as I could, and sort of jumped, sort of leaped, into the air. I flapped harder, and rose higher, higher, higher! I rose by myself, without planes or helicopters or anything besides my own wings!  
Nothing, nothing in the world is as good as flying with your own wings.   
We soared into the air. Flapping your wings like that was hard work, but it was worth it.   
I suddenly felt a warmth underneath me and up I rose! Up on a thermal! Like an invisible elevator!  
Ok, Jackie, remember a couple of things. Stay as far away from me as you can while still thought-speaking to me, OK? And ride the thermal as high as possible, because you can turn height into distance.  
Sure! This is so, so great! I can't really believe how great this is! I mean, with the owl, you only noticed the senses. But flying like this in the daytime! Wow! I mean, Wow! I can see everything! We're, what, a mile up and I can read that book that girl is reading down there! Wow!  
Yeah. It's great, I know. But, let's get focused here. We need to start heading toward that spot where the trucks crashed.   
We have all day. Let's just go a little higher, please?  
Jacqueline, we only have forty-three of your minutes left to stay in morph.  
Yeah, I know. I can keep time too, Ax. It's ten twenty-seven and fifteen seconds.  
Cool! Tobias said! You can keep time in your head? Like Ax can!  
Yeah. Everyone can, can't they?  
Of course not. Why do you think watches had to be invented!  
Oh. Cool! By the way, it's ten twenty-eight and thirty seconds.  
Correct. Tobias, I believe we are approaching the location of the accident.   
Yeah. Jackie, do you see it?  
No. Where is it?  
It's about two miles north-west of you.  
That's fine. But I think I have something over here. Look about north-east, then look up at the mountain about a mile.  
I think he looked.  
AX! WHAT IN THE HECK ARE THEY DOING OVER THERE! AND HOW COME NO ONE HAS NOTICED!  
  



	15. Chapter 14

Discovery of Horror  
  
  
I had seen a giant spaceship pull up next to the mountain, and begin Draconing a large bit of the mountain, so that it became a large cave. About a minute after it was done, Bug fighters appeared out of the big ship's hatch and flew into the cave. I saw the Big ship shimmer and disappear.   
I believe, Tobias, that they are carving out a great cavern in the mountainside. I also   
believe we should contact Prince Jake as soon as possible, especially as this cavern is within half a mile of the Center from which Jacqueline came. But most importantly of all, we should land, for Jaqueline and myself have approximately fifteen minutes before we become trapped in our morphs.  
We landed, demorphed, and remorphed wolf. I asked Tobias why wolf. He told me wolves can run faster and longer than birds can fly. So he and Ax morphed.  
I started to morph.  
Just for fun, I made my fur grow down my back and around my neck, to look like a fur coat. Then I let fur grow everywhere on me, then my knees reversed direction. My nose bulged out in front of my eyes. Now I know what Pinocchio felt like.  
Suddenly the morph was done. I didn't have any trouble controlling it, because Jake had forced me to practice all of my morphs before this.   
We raced through the woods, at top wolf speed. We ran for half an hour. When we reached Jake's house, I demorphed, then remorphed as the little girl, and went inside.   
Jake's mom told me that I could find Jake in his bedroom.  
Jake's house was really nice. It was two stories, had nice carpeting and beautiful wallpaper. I walked down the hall, and opened the second door on the right, like Jake's mom had told me. Jake was sitting on his bed, reading a comic book. He looked up.  
"Hi Jake!"  
"Hello, Jackie." Jake said uneasily. "What are you doing here?"  
"Well, Tobias, Ax and I were…"  
Jake looked up sharply. I stopped, then heard a voice.  
"Hey Jake, what's up?"   
I turned around, and saw what looked like an older version of Jake.  
"Jake, who's your girlfriend?" Tom teased. I knew it was Tom, Jake's brother, the controller.   
"Tom, this is Jacqueline. Jackie, this is my brother, Tom."  
Tom bowed, then took my hand and kissed it.  
"A pleasure to meet you, my lady. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and change the tires on my Father's noble steed. Farewell!" He laughed. I gave him a weak smile. Jake forced a laugh that sounded more like a cough.  
I froze, until I heard the door slam.   
"Tobias and I were wondering if you could get as many of your friends together as possible and come for a hike with us in the woods? We're meeting where we saw those two trucks the other day. Can you come?"  
Jake looked puzzled, then shocked.   
"Sure. Can I bring Cassie along? And Erek too?"  
"I think you should bring him, even though he would probably leave early. We're going to do some mountain climbing, and he hates mountain climbing. Bye!  
Meet you there!" I walked out of his room, to bump into Tom in the hall.  
"Were you listening to us?" I asked him, laughingly.   
"No, of course not." Tom said, sarcastically. His eyes looked a little suspicious.   
I walked out, wondering: 1. What the Yeerks were doing, and 2.How we could stop them without Rachel and Marco.   
  
We met, Ax, Tobias, Cassie, Jake, Erek and I got together where the trucks had crashed a few days earlier.   
"Now, Jackie, Tobias, what is this all about? What is the big hurry?"  
Tobias, Ax and I explained as quickly as possible what we had seen.  
"A cavern? That close to the Center? Ax, what do you think about this?"  
I don't know, Prince Jake. I really don't know.   
"Listen, Erek, what's been going on at that Center?"  
"Jake, 97% percent of the kids are controllers, and the rest have joined the Sharing. Whatever project the Yeerks are working on there, they've almost completed it."  
"Then our only answer is to get inside that mountain! We have to see what is going on in there." said Cassie.   
Cassie.  
Time froze again for me as I thought.  
Cassie. She was really pretty. Jake liked her, and I could see why. Her love for animals, her quietness, her sensitiveness, but she was firm about her beliefs. She was a great person.   
I snapped back to attention.  
Jake said, "Ok, real quick, we need two people to fly up there and check it out." He picked five pieces of grass, and shortened them to the same size. He then made two of them shorter then the rest. "Short straws go in."  
Cassie picked. Long. Ax picked. Long. Tobias picked. Long. I picked out of the two left, and got the short one.   
"Looks like it's you and me, Jake."  
I started morphing. First, I held my arms out in the air. My fingers became feathers, then feathers stretched down my arms. My hair turned dark grey, and melted into my back. I was covered in feathers. Then my feet morphed into talons. My legs shrank into my body and became bird's legs. My eyes grew big. Then I shrank down to bird size. Finally, my beak sprouted from my face.   
I noticed that Jake hadn't started to morph. He was staring at me.  
In fact, everyone was staring at me.  
What! What! Did I pick the wrong morph or what? What's wrong?  
Ax was staring at me with all four eyes. It was strange.   
Jacqueline, you are very good at morphing, and I believe the others are shocked at seeing you morph so well. Ax told me in private thought-speak.  
Oh.  
Jake morphed his falcon. I could see the differences in our morphing.   
His morph sort of happened all at once. He shrank while feathers sort of appeared all over his body at once. He morphed slower than me, too.   
We flew up above everyone else, trying to rise as fast as possible. Finally, we got up to the level of the cavern. We saw long tunnels into the mountain side, and heard Dracon beams firing at the end of these caverns. While we were circling, we saw that the road from the Center to here was filled with trucks. Some had different company names, like Pepsi and McDonalds. They pulled up underneath the mountain.   
What are they doing? Jake said.   
I have no idea.  
The lead truck, which was from Burger King, stopped in front of this big boulder, and the driver got out. He stepped up behind the boulder, and fiddled with a control panel. The boulder disappeared. Completely.,  
A couple bugs fell to the ground where the boulder had been.  
Hologram with force field. Jake informed me. The bugs crawled on top of what they thought was a real boulder.  
The boulder-hologram had covered the entrance to a huge tunnel, that led up, into the mountain. There were about twenty trucks all together.  
Let's hitch a ride. Jake said to me.  
Huh? Oh.   
I dove down, and landed on the last truck. Making sure no one was watching, I demorphed and morphed to fly as fast as I could. Jake did the same. We were both flies by the time the truck pulled into the tunnel.  
I could sense we were going upward, at a slant. Like we were travelling up a big hill. I smelled something awful. Suddenly, the tunnel we were in opened up into a huge space. I could sense many humans, and some Hork-Bajir.   
Humans, Hork-Bajir, a weird smell. What do you think is going on, Jake?  
I've smelled that before. Jake said. His thought-speak sounded grim.   
Where?  
The Yeerk Pool.  
We flew into a closet where we didn't sense any people.   
I will demorph first, then you.  
What morph will we be using?  
Umm. Not battle morphs, but we need better senses then this.  
How about bats?  
Yeah. Bats.  
Jake demorphed, then morphed a bat really quickly. I did the same.   
We flew out, echolocating, trying to stay inconspicuous.  
The bat was cool. It was almost blind, but when it gave off it's high-pitched squeaks, you could sense everything for a split second.  
I fired round after round of squeaks. Back came round after round of line-drawings. It was like the best artist in the world took a pen and made sketches of this place. It was cool seeing stuff this way; so cool, in fact, that I didn't even notice what I was seeing at first. When I did notice, I was shocked.  
Human controllers and Hork-Bajir everywhere. And more than half of the Controllers were kids! Kids I used to know!  
There was Rebecca Stevenson, the girl whom I'd watched get turned into a controller that night in her bedroom. She was carrying boxes over to this big pit, that was still being Draconed out by other kids from the Center. Those kids were using Dracon beams to cut through the rock, making a huge pit, about ten feet deep and thirty feet wide. There were also some kids hammering down boards, sort of making two piers over the pit. Still other kids and adults were making things that looked like…  
Cages? Jake, why would they want a pit, and piers, and cages?  
It was a few minutes before Jake answered me again.   
A Yeerk Pool, Jacqueline. They are building another Yeerk Pool.  
  
After-school jobs  
  
  
We flew back down the tunnel, and landed in the woods. We morphed back to human, then again to wolf. We ran as fast as we could back to the others.  
As soon as we could see them, we started calling out to them.  
AX! CASSIE! HURRY UP AND MORPH TO WOLF! WE HAVE SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO TELL YOU! I yelled in thought-speak.  
Cassie screamed. I think I startled her a little bit. But then she started to morph to wolf. Ax too.  
Cassie was pretty good at morphing, but I had the feeling that she wasn't as good as me.   
Her hair turned silver, and her knees changed directions.  
Ax was even cooler to watch.  
His four legs became paws. His arms kind of melted into his body, while his fur on his tail grew long and shaggy. His tail-blade sort of folded into itself, and his tail grew shorter. His nose(or whatever you want to call those slits on his face that he breaths through) stretched outward and split open. His stalk eyes slurped into his head.  
We ran back through the woods. (Boy! All this running through the woods gets really boring after a while, you know? But it was necessary.)   
We reached the mountain, only to realise that the tunnel was blocked by the rock hologram. It may have only been a hologram with a force-field, but it was still impenetrable. We demorphed, and tried to morph into birds and fly up to the big opening, but that was blocked up too. We couldn't find anyway into the mountain. So we gave up.  
As we flew home, we talked.  
Why would they want another Yeerk Pool? The one they have is huge enough. Jake wondered.  
Yeah, and why would they want it up here in the mountains?  
As we flew, each of us about a hundred yards away from each other, we each circled around and around.  
Prince Jake, they may not have room for the many Yeerks they need in just one Yeerk Pool. There were exactly nineteen thousand four hundred and forty-two Yeerk Pools on the Yeerk home world before Andalites discovered it. That was when Yeerk technology was primitive at best, and their hosts were only semi-intelligent Gedds.  
But why up here? In the mountains?   
I do not know, Jacqueline.  
Ax, why don't you call me Jackie like everyone else does?  
Jacqueline, why do you not call me Aximili like all Andalites on my home-world do?  
Jake laughed in thought-speak.  
Ax, you just made a funny joke! Congratulations! Boy, is Marco going to be mad that he missed Ax's first joke!  
We went home and had lunch with our families. Except me.  
I went into town(in my human morph) and started asking around for an after-school job.   
I didn't find a job, but I did wash the windows of a gas station, and got paid five bucks for it. On the way out of the station, I overheard two men talking. One was saying:  
"Now, if we can just get some kids to join up, we can get them over to help with the work. Start putting up signs that we're hiring, alright?"  
Alright! I would just follow the men, and get myself a job!  
I followed the man with the posters for a long, long time. He finally stopped at the beach, where some kind of party was going on. A lot of kids were playing volley-ball. Some were at this huge grill that was set up, heaping their plates with barbecued chicken. He finally hung up one of the posters. I went over and read it.  
It said:  
NOW HIRING!  
All members be on the alert!  
Now Hiring kids ages 12-18  
Exciting new Job!   
Tell all your friends about a cool new way to hook up with our club, and make some extra money! All you need to do to apply is come!   
FRIDAY FROM 4-7  
WE WILL BE HIRING!  
BRING ALL YOUR FRIENDS!  
We need kids like you to help us out!  
Fun! Excitement!  
The Sharing  
  
I read through the poster excitedly.  
When I got to the last words, I frowned.  
The Sharing?  
The Yeerk Organisation?   
The Sharing was hiring? Why? Why would it want kids?  
It had just taken over the Center, with all the kids there.  
Why did it want more kids?  
I looked more closely around the park.  
Tom! Tom, Jake's brother was talking to some friends! Tom was a controller. I walked over to him.  
"Hey! Hi Tom!"  
Tom looked up, startled.   
"Hi, Jackie. What are you doing here?"  
"Looking for an after-school job. I saw the poster, and I was wondering if you knew anything about the job. It doesn't say exactly what the job is, or how much it pays."  
Tom smiled.  
"Of course. The job pays about ten bucks an hour. All you have to do is help load trucks with stuff, and ride with the trucks to this place in the mountains. It's really neat."  
"Ten bucks an hour! Why do you need kids to do it? Why not the adult members?"  
"Because, kids have more spare time."  
Great. That answered my questions.  
I was starting to get frustrated.  
"Tom, you think you could get me some info to take back to my parents?"]  
"Sure! Give me your address.""  
Uh-oh. Better think quick.  
"I'll, um, I'll be seeing Jake at school. Why don't you just give it to him?"  
"Alright. Hey, would you like to join me and some of my friends here for a little game of volley-ball?"  
"I have to be back home by five. What time is it?"  
"About four-forty-five. You better split."  
"Yeah. Hey, thanks! I'll see you all later!"  
I walked casually away. Once I was far enough away, I hid and demorphed. I remorphed the osprey, and flew away.  
I'd have to check out this job offer.   
What was the reason behind this scheme? Why would they need kids to help load and unload trucks? I mean, surely they had enough controllers to do that.  
I would have to check it out.  
  
  



	16. Chapter 15

Battle  
  
  
  
Jake and I looked at the info on the job offer. It looked absolutely normal.  
On Saturday, Jake called a meeting.  
We were walking through the woods, towards the mountains.   
"Ok, today we attack that 'cavern that they have up there. We're going to go in, and rip everything to pieces, and then run for our lives and go waste our allowances at the arcade.  
Let's go."  
Ok, maybe that's not exactly what he said. But that was the gist of it.  
What he actually said was:  
"Ok. We need to spy out that cavern up there again. Try to hack into computers, find out what all they're bringing up there, that kind of thing. No one morphs for battle unless absolutely necessary."  
Same thing, only what I said was less confusing.   
We flew in, hitching a ride on the first truck.   
Jake and I led everyone to the closet we had demorphed in last time.  
Only, last time, there were two people. This time, there were seven.  
Tight squeeze.  
We morphed bat, and flew around again.  
We watched the controllers and the Hork-Bajir.  
We saw people setting up a computer in one room. Another room, people walked out of it.  
We went into the room. There was a computer, up and running.  
We checked to make sure no one was coming, demorphed, and looked at the computer.  
Ax checked it out. He found a couple of documents, that I couldn't read. They were in an alien language.  
He told us that they were making this Yeerk Pool to be a place to breed Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. They thought that if they raised the Hork-Bajir, then the Hork-Bajir would obey them, even if they weren't controlled by Yeerks. The kids were there because they didn't want their adult controllers hurt it something went wrong, like a Hork Bajir went crazy.  
"Ok, we definitely need to destroy this place. We have to get rid of this place. No other choice. If they start breeding Hork-Bajir with that big incubator machine, we could be in big trouble. They could get thousands of Hork-Bajir in a month. We have to destroy this place totally." Jake said, resignedly. He sighed.  
"Wow. What a totally Rachel thing to say." Marco laughed. "I guess we need to kick some Yeerk butt today, huh."  
"Let's do it!"  
"What morph should I use?" I asked. This would be my first really big battle. We'd be fighting Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, and human-controllers. I was more worried than I'd ever been in my life. But I wasn't scared. Not really.  
"Well, you should probably use your alligator morph. Or your rhino. Yeah, use the rhino. We need as much power as possible. Rachel, elephant. Marco, use your gorilla. Ax, use your elephant morph, the one you acquired back when David was with us. Cassie, you need to use your elephant too. Everyone ready?"  
Everyone nodded. They looked really grim.  
"What! We're just going to fight? No precautions, no detective work, we're just going all-out ballistic? You guys are nuts!" I said.  
"Now, I'm starting to like this girl. She's got the sense none of us have." Marco laughed.  
I concentrated on the rhinoceros.  
I noticed everyone wasn't morphing, just watching me.  
Alright, I thought, if they want a show, I'll give them a show.  
I suddenly crossed my eyes to watch the horn sprout from between my eyes. It grew in proportion to my face. My eyes grew dim. My ears worked their way to the top of my head, and turned grey. My skin, all of it at once, turned grey. My legs became stumps, and my skin turned rough. I blinked my eyes.  
You all can start morphing any time, you know.  
They started morphing.  
When we were done, the whole room was very crowded. Lucky for us, it was a big room.  
Yeeha! Ride 'um, cowboy! Marco yelled! I felt something heavy land on my back.  
I'm not your horse! Get off! I said angrily. Marco ignored me.  
We charged out of the room!  
Ok, Jackie, go straight, and you'll plow into some Hork-Bajir. Then turn immediately left. Marco instructed me.  
I ran as fast as I could.  
Thump! Thump!  
What was that?   
The Hork-Bajir.  
I turned left.   
Bang!   
What is that?!   
That was a bug fighter. Now it's a piece of scrap metal.   
I plowed on, mowing down Hork-Bajir.  
I got a couple of really bad cuts in my side. But they didn't mean anything.  
I was fighting.  
Thump! Thump thump thump thump CRASH! BOOM BOOM BOOM! CRASH!  
What was THAT!  
That was about five Hork-Bajir, three bug fighters and a bunch of cardboard boxes. Oh yeah, and and a box of dracon beams. You stepped on them, and I think they exploded.  
Cool!  
Boom! Boom! CRASH! Splash.  
I landed in water.  
You idiot! Can't you see anything! You walked onto the pier! Get out of the Yeerk Pool!  
I floundered blindly for a minute, then got up.  
I heard Jake calling.  
Listen! Rachel's hurt bad, and Tobias is trapped in a cage. Rachel, get out of here! Someone go after Tobias, please! We need to split!  
Where's Tobias! Rachel yelled.  
Rachel, leave! Now! Jackie, I got Tobias! Cassie is out, Rachel is out, and I'm heading for the exit. Get out! There are about fifty Hork-Bajir on the way! Get out, quick! You too, Marco!  
Which way is the exit?  
Slash! Suddenly, Marco was pulled off my back.  
Marco! What happened!  
Slash!  
A Hork-Bajir slashed open my side! I turned and rammed him. I was getting weak.  
Marco! Help me!   
I heard Jake outside.  
Marco's out! Marco, where's Jackie?  
She's still in there! I heard Marco cry desperately! I got knocked off her back, and attacked! I….  
Marco, demorph! I'm going back in!  
I saw a flash of orange and black in front of me. Another Hork-Bajir slashed at me. I tried to ram him too, but he had cut open my front leg. He kicked me, and my other front leg went down.  
Jackie! Get up! You HAVE to get out! Visser Three is coming!  
I dragged myself up.   
This way, Jackie.  
I saw an orange and black object in front of me. I followed it, and finallly felt a cool breeze on my face.  
Jackie, demorph! Demorph! Demorph! I heard Marco yell.  
I concentrated on my image of myself.  
I felt the changes beginning.  
I quickly remorphed to bird, and took off, even though I was exhausted. I flew, not back to Cassie's barn. Not to our designated meeting place.   
I flew to the Center. I landed on the roof, demorphed, and rested. It made me feel better, just being home. After a while, I saw a red-tailed hawk flying towards me. I remorphed to owl, and waited on the edge of the roof.  
  



	17. Chapter 16

Finishing touches  
  
There, Tobias found me.  
Jackie, is that you? he called, from about fifty feet away.   
Yes, it's me. I said.  
Where have you been! We've been looking everywhere! Why did you run like that?   
I don't' know. I just, well, I don't know. I feel really confused.  
Tobias was silent for a minute.  
We totally trashed the Yeerk Pool, you know. There isn't really anything left, just a lot of garbage. He chuckled in thought speak. Rhino's in a Yeerk Pool. That's like a bull in a china shop.  
Yeah. I giggled to myself. We took off, flying fast as we could.  
Tobias dived down to Cassie's barn. Cassie was just coming out.   
I guess Tobias told her where I was, because she looked up at me, then ran in the house. I could see her making a phone call through the window.  
A few minutes later, Jake showed up. I was still in the air, still flying around.  
I landed hard. I demorphed quickly, and ran up to Jake.  
"Jake.. I.."  
"Wait until the others get here, Ok?" Jake was using the calm voice, but you could tell he was really angry. A few minutes later the others arrived. They demorphed. Marco came up to me and started yelling at me. He got right up in my face.  
"Where the heck have you been! Why did you run off like that !" He then said a word that I shouldn't repeat.  
Rachel was just as steamed. Cassie looked calm, but worried. Ax didn't look angry or worried. Then again, what can you expect from someone with no mouth?  
Tobias morphed into his human form. He walked over to us.  
Jake shut Marco up, whispered something to Rachel(I couldn't hear it, but it sounded like '…explain….morph…don't ….elephant ..don't stomp her…') and looked me in the eye.  
"Alright, Jackie. Would you mind explaining to us exactly why you ran away like that?"  
I thought a lot. "Because… because I felt angry at myself for not being able to get out. I also felt guilty that you had to come rescue me. I was hurt badly, and I was scared. I was more scared than ever, because I thought you guys were gonna get killed because of me."  
Marco looked ready to yell again. Jake looked at him, and nodded. Marco burst out.  
"Listen, we have done this a billion times before. We have gone completely insane in battle, and we're all still here. We've never run away. We've never taken a break. Jake's the leader, we listen to him. WE don't run back to the place where we're most likely to get captured because we were scared!"  
"You've never tried to take a break from all this? You've never gotten so scared that you just spend a day doing normal stuff? I mean, you guys have to have a few days to just chill, without having meetings or anything. It's not like the Yeerks are going to ask you to come and annihilate them, you know."  
Marco, Jake, Cassie and Rachel all made funny faces at that, as if they were trying hard not to smile. Then Cassie cracked.  
We were all laughing so hard, we could barely breath. It was weird, we were so tense one minute, and laughing the next. But that's part of what made this group special.  
Jake and the others left, except for Marco.  
"Hey, Jackie? Sorry I yelled at you like that. You're still just a kid, a lot younger than the rest of us. I guess we should cut you some slack."  
"Just a kid? A lot younger? Hey, I can morph the same size gorilla as you, Marco."  
We laughed again. Then he put his hand on my shoulder.   
"You're pretty tough, you know? Got a good sense of humour, and you're more sane then the rest of us. You're pretty cool."  
I smiled.   
FLASH!  
Suddenly, I wasn't there! I was floating in a light lilac coloured mist.   
When I closed my eyes, I could see Marco glance up.   
"Jackie? Jackie, where did you go? Jackie!"  
I opened my eyes. Standing before me(or should I say, floating before me) was a creature that looked human, except it had no features. It was all one glowing blob of light, with red, blue all colours of specks floating through it.  
Hello, Jacqueline.  
A voice that went through my head! Like thought-speak, but much more powerful.  
"Who are you? What are you?"  
I am the Ellimist. The Animorphs may have told you a little about me.  
"Yeah, they told me you were a jerk who plays games with time and space, who risks their lives to defeat your enemies."  
I am here to help you Jacqueline. There has been a tangle in the time-space fabric. You should not be here. You would not be here, except for a young Andalite's adventures with my invention, the Time Matrix. Your parents should not have been on earth. You should not be here. If I do not untangle this knot in the time fabric, Earth will have a worse chance of defeating the Yeerks. To fix this tangle, I must have your permission.  
"What is this tangle? What does it have to do with me?"  
If you were not here, the Animorphs would have discovered and stopped the Yeerks at the Center. There would be no new Yeerk Pool, for lack of workers. There would be no incubators, for lack of the girl, Rebecca Stevenson, the controller, who thought of the idea. The Animorphs would have destroyed the Yeerk Pool long before she became a controller. But, if you did not exist ever, then all would be lost. You are an important part of history and future. But, not here.  
"So, what are you going to do?"  
I must fix this problem, with your permission. You will always have your memory, as will the Animorphs. But, time will be rewinded, with you in your rightful place. Do I have your permission?  
"Yeah, I guess. But what exactly are you going to do?"  
Before I finished my sentence, I had disappeared out of the mist..  
I was seeing my self! I was in space, seeing the stretch of time flow like threads in a tapestry across the universe.  
Then I opened my eyes.   
  



	18. Epilouge

The next chapter begins…  
  
  
I looked around from my position on the ground.   
There were weird trees all around me. A six-winged bird flew above my head.  
Where am I? I thought to myself.  
I tried to get to my feet. I couldn't get up! I looked behind myself to see what the problem was.  
I saw a tail, with a sharp blade at the end of it, coming from the back of my body. My two back legs were horse's legs! I had a tail! And I was looking behind myself with and extra eye!  
I was in an Andalite body!   
I was an Andalite!  
I got to my feet, and looked around wildly.  
A couple hundred yards away, two older Andalites were watching me.  
One was very familiar, though I didn't know why. Then I realised.  
My father!  
The other Andalite must be my mother then!  
Very good first run, Fallanah-Negorth-Sitlish. You have very strong legs for someone your age. My Father had spoken to me!  
Thank you, father. I replied. Then two more females, younger then mother but older then me, came running up.  
Is this our new sister? One asked.  
She is absolutely beautiful! Look at her nice, long tail! And such powerful legs!  
I galloped over to my mother. Then, I turned one stalk eye up to the sky. There, the Ellimist was smiling at me. Then he vanished.  
I knew he had changed my life for the better. I had my memory, The Animorphs would have theirs, when they became the Animorphs. But, until I grew up, and became a great warrior, and helped to stop the Yeerks from invading Earth.  
Until then, there was grass to taste, customs to learn, and math. Always math.  
And, I could play with the other Andalites. I could see them, just staring to play. I was startled to realise I knew one of them.   
AX!  
I would have to become friends with him.  
I remembered vaguely Ax saying he'd be distracted in xenobiology class by an Andalite female.  
Hmmmm…  
Whatever happened, I knew that this. This. This place. Was where I belonged  
I was Jacqueline, the orphan. I am now -Fallanah-Negorth-Sitlish, Andalite.   
My destiny is waiting for me.   
So ends the chronicles of a human girl. So begins the story of a young Andalite girl, ready to fight, forever.  
  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I wrote this several years ago, and haven't proofread or anything. I'm planning to touch it up, please review  
and help me with that! I need to know what parts to change and what to keep! If nobody reviews, then I'm not going to mess  
with it. I mean it! Please, please, PLEASE review, and help me out! Or e-mail me at soccerd43@cs.com  
Thank you all for sticking with this crappy piece of work. 


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